Blue Bottle Coffee announces expansion with $25.75M investment

OAKLAND -- Bay Area coffee favorite Blue Bottle Coffee Company is planning an expansion of new cafes and products using an infusion of cash from high-powered investors.

Blue Bottle Coffee, a gourmet roaster known for its slow-drip coffee and long lines of customers, has landed $25.75 million in funding from investors who include Twitter co-founder Evan Williams.

Blue Bottle Coffee president James Freeman said in a blog post that he plans to use the investment to open a research and design facility to experiment with new coffee blends and food, travel to coffee plantations to source more beans directly, create more environmentally friendly packaging and sell bottled iced coffee. The company has also signed leases to open more cafes in Oakland -- in the W.C. Morse building on Broadway near 42nd next month -- and Palo Alto, Los Angeles and New York.